questionauthority: (Tip my hat to you)
Edward Nigma | The Riddler ([personal profile] questionauthority) wrote2011-11-04 06:11 pm

Riddle 036: What is it that nobody wants to have, yet nobody wants to lose?

[A - ACTION - Hospital.

On an ordinary day, during an ordinary visit to the hospital (perhaps to see Ema), the Riddler winds up running into another familiar face. But there's something quite different about him today. He's got that cheery look in his eyes, a dopey smile that's been plastered onto his face. But unlike his ordinary childish facade, the look on Bruce Wayne's face is eerily... vacant. Empty.

Question: What happens when you discover that the man who's outwitted you, outmatched you, and beaten you to an absolute pulp more times than you can count has been turned into nothing more than a brainless automaton with no mind or free will to call his own?

Answer: Grin like a madman and gloat when nobody else is around.]


So you've failed at last. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. After all, who can truly hold a candle to my genius? Not you, Dark Knight. [He laughs.]

If only you could see yourself now. The World's Greatest Detective? Hardly.

Question:

"What is greater than God? More evil than the Devil himself?
The rich need it, the poor have it, and if you eat it you'll die?"

Answer: Nothing. You're nothing now. You've lost. And I, Edward Nigma, have finally---

[Won? ...no. No, he hasn't. Mayfield did this to him. Mayfield took the Batman and broke him down into nothing. Not the Riddler. This... isn't his victory. This was never a victory at all. And as soon as he realizes that, Edward's wide smirk fades into a venomous glare. Shoving the husk he once called his archnemesis out of his way, he moves to depart the hospital and put as much distance between himself and that... thing as he possibly can.]

[B - PHONE - Unfiltered. The winning edge is completely gone from his voice now. He sounds strangely empty.]

Riddle me this. What is the one thing we have all seen and will never see again?

[C - ACTION - 726 Anderson Lane / The Hall of Doom.

Whether he's sitting in the kitchen tinkering around with a strange contraption he's received in the mail or in the empty conference room of the Hall of Doom, the Riddler is uncharacteristically quiet this evening. Bother him?]

[identity profile] jaws5sonofjaws.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
Okay... okay...

The day? Tomorrow? Today? Yesterday?

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Before he can take the bottle, Dist's words sink in.]

He did what? When?

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:09 am (UTC)(link)
Of course there is. What reason is there for any riddle, really? To answer a question that life offers us.

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
He talked me into therapy, which I needed. He injected me with something that made me hallucinate, then locked me in a closet.

[Edward is the first person he's mentioned this to. Even talking about it makes him shrink down further.]

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
Fear Toxin. It's his specialty. [Edward wasn't even aware that the Scarecrow had any in his supply. Though it only makes sense that he'd brew up more.] What then?

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
What then? He left me there overnight, then let me go. Apparently I'm part of his study, but he doesn't need me any more.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:20 am (UTC)(link)
[He mutters something under his breath. Likely akin to "Why am I not surprised?"]

Jonathan's... a very interesting sort of doctor. Certainly not the kind people enjoy visiting on a regular basis. [Hell, even dentists have better luck than him.]

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
I know that. Now I know that.

[Bitterness? Yeah.]

I thought I'd try opening up. Trusting. Coordinating, to better figure this place out.

You see how well that's turned out. I can't decide if I should go it alone or try and join back up with you, but I'm mostly sure you won't inject me with something.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
Only "mostly?" [A mirthless chuckle. Yeah, bitterness on his end too.]

I'd originally intended to go about this alone. To solve this riddle on my own, to leave Mayfield with little concern as to whether or not the others were smart enough to figure it out as well. But it isn't that simple. Nothing is, really, in this place.

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:34 am (UTC)(link)
I think everyone did.

[DRINK.]

I'm working on a stabilizer for the eye so you can't damage it again.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
[Once Dist has lowered the bottle again, Edward'll finally take it out of his hands and take a swig as well.]

Your efforts may be better spent elsewhere, considering that I don't intend to damage it again.

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
It doesn't matter if it's you. It's an easily exploited weakness, and I intend to correct it. You simply exposed it to me.

[Edward sharing his drink, as well as being willing to listen, is helping immensely.]

I figured you'd never want to speak to me again.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
I'll admit I wasn't thrilled to know who you'd been cavorting about with. Yet you at least attempted to reverse the damage by warning me.

[Edward had spent so long attempting to repair bridges he'd thought to have been so thoroughly burnt. This must be what it's like to be on the other side, he supposes, listening to Dist talk.]

We're speaking now, aren't we?

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
My, my. There is a brain in that head of yours.

[Sure, Mart's correct. But he isn't going to tell the sharkboy which answer was correct.]

[identity profile] buildstherobots.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:04 am (UTC)(link)
I told you, I had no reason to doubt him. It had never hurt you before, and I was attempting to recover information that I was going to share.

[He sighs, grinding the heel of hand into his temple. Everything is fuzzy.]

We are... at my insistence. Crane did say you would never come to me.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
In a matter of speaking. Christmas itself is observed commercially on one day alone, though the days that follow it could be considered a period of further religious observance. [Not that religion's ever been super high in Edward's book of priorities.]

...though there is the matter of Hannukkah.

[identity profile] jaws5sonofjaws.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks.

Asshole.

So what do I get?

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:06 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, I'll bite.

What the hell is that one.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
After how I'd treated you, you had expected me to make the next move? [Reacting to Dist the way he had gotten him chewed out by Schuldig. Ema, too.]

But I suppose I could have just slammed the door in your face. If I really wanted to. [This isn't at Dist's insistence. Or at Edward's initiative. This is them just kind of... meeting somewhere around the middle.]

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:20 am (UTC)(link)
A certain point in time, to be more precise.

[A low cluck of displeasure.]

Don't let this place fool you. Time is just as it ever was. The future is still a riddle, the answer still waiting to be discovered. Regardless of how time drags on.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
Well, there you have it. You've found the answer.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
There must be rules you have to follow. I can't imagine you'd simply be allowed to do as you like for eternity.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
It's a Jewish holiday. A so-called "Festival of Lights" that lasts for eight days and eight nights.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
[Eddie can get behind secret projects. Luke, you evil little genius, you.]

Scout's honor.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:29 am (UTC)(link)
We will. We will find the answers this place has been keeping from us.

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